Jurassic World: Dominion
4 Gravestones
This long awaited sequel finishes up this trilogy and possible the franchise. There was three in the original Jurassic Park series and two with the more recent Jurassic World series. Jurassic World: Dominion picks up shortly after Fallen Kingdom where the dinosaurs are loose throughout the world. Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Howard Dallas) are hiding the clone girl away from the scientist who want to test her for profit and to control the dinosaurs. And not least, unusually large locust are destroying all of the corps not made by Biosyn, which may be responsible for the locust and might ending up killing the world. There is also a side story with Blue, the velociraptor the Owen trained.
Everything is brought together by Dr. Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum), who works at Biosyn and calls in Dr. Ellie Sattler who in turn goes to Dr. Alan Grant to help expose Biosyn role in the locust, the dinosaurs and possibly the end of the world. Will the dinosaurs once again rule the earth, will the locust become the end to civilization or will man stay on top being the apex predator.
Dominion does a good job finishing up the series and the franchise with continuing the action and bringing back all of the dinosaurs terrorizing the world. What makes this movie great is they did something similar to Spiderman: No Way Home where they bring back characters from previous movies to tie everything together. They worked a story for the old and new characters to have their own storyline only to bring them together midway to amp up the action, thrills and action. Along with that, they also bring in all of the dinosaurs from all of the movies and some nods to old storylines. The only drawback is that some of the scenes could’ve of been cut that the clone girl and the forced romance between Dr. Grant and Sattler.
This is a definitely see for all of the fans of the series and a great way to end the franchise. Will they eventually continue the story or reboot the franchise? I hope not and hope the leave well enough alone.
Morbius
4 Gravestones
Since this is the very first time ever the character known as Morbius the living vampire has been portrayed in live-action, most of us comic book fans didn’t know really what to expect. The character has been around since 1971 but until now has only been seen in the pages of comic books or in a few rare occasions been part of an animated TV series such as the 90’s show Spiderman: The Animated Series. The year 2022 saw the release of Morbius, the movie following in the footsteps of Venom, another Spiderman foe for Sony Pictures. Former Birds of Prey Joker, Jared Leto, plays Doctor Michael Morbius, a man seeking a cure for a rare blood disease that he and his childhood best friend have. Thinking that vampire bats would hold the secret to their affliction, the good doctor injects himself with a serum hoping to be free of his crippling illness.
The shocker here is the serum turns Doctor Michael Morbius into a raging monstrous vampire creature who craves human blood. Now I know a lot….a lot of film reviewers crapped all over this movie…..and they're right, it’s a shit show at its core, but damn if it’s not still damn entertaining. The action sequence when Morbius first takes the serum and turns into the vampire is nothing less than electrifying when the newly born creature rampages through a ship in a blood-soaking massacre. Well, blood soaking under a PG-13 rating anyway. I have to say the overall look of his vampire form is quite stunning, frightening and most of all fantastic….even though it’s mostly a CGI mask and not a makeup effect. In fact, the effect of CGI is very much overused here such as in the fight scenes and is at times a bit cartoony….. however, if you can look past that as is the course of today’s modern cinema another viewer may be okay with that.
Is Morbius’ first time out of the gate in live-action a hit or miss? I overall really did like this movie because despite its faults, it was fun and if you think of it in lesser terms as a comic book movie and more of a vampire movie, then it’s okay. It’s worth a watch even if you catch it on Netflix or any cable channel that will run it in the future.
Werewolf Castle
5 Gravestones
Now this was a little treat I discovered that shocked the hell out of me. Why, because it was a fresh story and a plot with werewolves that we have not seen before. No full moon, cursed individual or shape-shifting people anywhere in sight. In fact, these werewolves can be seen during the middle of the day as they do their wolf thing.
The movie opens with a small medieval village being attacked by a pack of werewolves that kill nearly everyone they see. Only a handful of villagers are left alive after the assault along with a young man named Thorfinn who watched his family and girlfriend all slaughtered by the hairy beasts. Those who lived soon hire a team of knights to track down and destroy the evil creatures as Thorfinn agrees to go with the warriors and lead them to a castle where help may be found.
Along the way, the boy who was once timid and lacking any fighting skills learns to defend himself from the creatures as he learns what it means to be a hero. These werewolves very much differ from your old run-of-the-mill moon beast as they once transformed and remain as a bipedal human/wolf hybrid, day or night. They are lead by a creature that seems more human than beast who speaks and controls the monsters as they rampage over the countryside attacking town after town. The werewolves themselves look fantastic for an indie low-budget production as creature costumes were provided by Midnight Studios FX. They really stand out and even in fully lit daylight, they come across as living creatures and not guys in cheap Halloween outfits. Great movie currently running on YouTube.
The Sighting
5 Gravestones
This Bigfoot horror movie takes a new approach to the myth of the creature in the woods. A young man and his best friend take a road trip to Canada by way of northern Buffalo but along the way they are told of a shortcut they never should have taken. Once on a deserted old road never use and long-closed they find themselves facing something inhuman lurking in the woods.
Now I have to say, there was one scene that even gave me chills…..yeah that’s right, it gave Dark Soul chills when they first encounter the woodland creatures by way of how it was shot and presented. This was something of a murder mystery with monsters or was it? A new take on what Bigfoot was and his history plus the viewer at one point doesn’t even know of the creatures attacked the two friends or was it something even more heinous going on? Good movie and playing for free on YouTube.
